You could call it serendipity. One coach reaching a milestone 40 years in the making, another taking his first step down what could be a remarkable path of his own, and it happened in the same gym, on the same day, Saturday when the Hillcrest boys and girls basketball teams swept visiting Rivermont Collegiate.

The Raven girls earned their first victory of the season with a 64-15 blasting of the Lions. The Ravens raced out to a 35-2 run that spanned the entire first half, allowing only one field goal on defense while five Hillcrest players got on the board. The Ravens outscored Rivermont 29-15 after break to reach the win column for the first time this season. It was also the first career victory for Hillcrest head coach Mitchell Drey After the game,  Drey talked about his team’s performance in their first wins. “The biggest thing for us we have been talking about is defense. If we can get some stops we can get some baskets. The past couple of games we have missed some shots, but the defense has been there. Tonight the defense was always there, it was our rock and then we were able to get the offense going. I’m always a defense first kind of guy, I love seeing that. It felt good to get that first win. I came down, the girls were already kind of excited. I walked in and they weren’t sure how I was going to feel about it. I just right into the celebration with them. It was great to have it. Now that we have felt that feeling we talked about now it’s going out and fighting for that feeling.”

Hillcrest outrebounded Rivermont by 22, forced 37 turnovers and had three players post career highs in points, led by 39 from Esther Hughes. Leah Bontrager got to double figures with 10 and Malia Yoder had a career best night with nine. The Ravens are now 1-6 on the season. This was Rivermont’s first contest since 2012 as they restart their program.

The boys game was a runaway for the Ravens that saw head coach Dwight Gingerich notch his 700th career victory by a 63-26 score. It was all Hillcrest from the start, leading 21-4 after the first and 40-13 at the break. They won the second half 20-13 with reserves logging the bulk of the minutes. Hillcrest outrebounded the Lions by 21 and forced 30 turnovers. Grant Bender had a game high 21 points, Josiah Beachy got to double figures with 12 and Seth Ours had 11. The Hillcrest boys have now won four straight to improve to 4-1. The Raven boys and girls are back on the floor Friday when they travel to Pekin.